Finding novel antibiotics to counter antimicrobial resistance
- Supervisors: Dr Simon Moore and Dr Christoph Engl
- Funding: SBBS Start-up Studentship
- Deadline: 28th February 2023
The following fully-funded PhD studentship is available in the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences with an expected start date of Sept 2023.
Research environment
The School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences at Queen Mary is one of the UK’s elite research centres, according to the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). We offer a multi-disciplinary research environment and have approximately 150 PhD students working on projects in the biological and psychological sciences. Our students have access to a variety of research facilities supported by experienced staff, as well as a range of student support services.
The Moore group works within the newly emerging synthetic biology for natural products field to study problems such as a cancer and antimicrobial resistance. We aim to discover or engineer new natural products (e.g., drugs, antibiotics), as well as develop fundamental tools that aid this discovery process. We complement this with traditional biochemistry and microbiology approaches. We are looking for a curious, self-motivated, and collegial applicant to join our team as a PhD student. The project aims to study the potential of synthetic biology to help address a major problem, antimicrobial resistance. The student will work on a fully funded three-year University studentship starting in September 2023. PhD applicants are invited to work within the group of Dr Simon Moore at the School of Biological Sciences, Queen Mary University of London.
Training and development
Our PhD students become part of Queen Mary’s Doctoral College which provides training and development opportunities, advice on funding, and financial support for research. Our students also have access to a Researcher Development Programme designed to help recognise and develop key skills and attributes needed to effectively manage research, and to prepare and plan for the next stages of their career.
This PhD project will provide the student with a rich package of training and development opportunities through co-supervision (Moore, Engl groups) at Queen Mary University of London, as well as Professor Mark Sutton and Dr Charlie Hind at UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA). The PhD project is multidisciplinary (e.g., biology, chemistry, engineering), while the student will also gain specialist knowledge in synthetic biology, a platform technology relevant to small-medium enterprises through to large industry groups both within the UK and internationally. In addition, the student will receive continuous supervision and training in transferable skills, such as communication, task management, problem solving, and team working.
Project description
Antimicrobial resistance is a silent pandemic predicted to cause more deaths than cancer by 2050. This project will study how antimicrobial resistance evolves in Gram-negative pathogenic bacteria, which are a major threat due to increasing levels of antimicrobial resistance and virulence factors. There has also been no new clinical antibiotics developed for Gram-negative bacteria since the quinolones in the 1970s.
This project aims to anticipate, learn, and counter antimicrobial resistance for Gram-negative bacteria. Specifcially, we need to anticipate how antimicrobial resistance mechanisms develop in an infectious disease. This is important because infectious diseases will eventually overwhelm current antibiotic treatment options. Then, we need to learn how severe an antimicrobial resistance mechanism is, and in so doing, confirm whether this confers an advantage to the microbe. Last, we need to counter antimicrobial resistant infectious diseases by finding novel antibiotic classes, and especially antibiotics that defeat current antimicrobial resistance mechanisms. This project will begin by studying a novel resistance mechanism in Klebsiella pneumoniae (a Gram-negative pathogen), before investigating potentially novel antimicrobial strategies.
Funding
The studentship is funded by Queen Mary and will cover home tuition fees, and provide an annual tax-free maintenance allowance for 3 years at the UKRI rate (£19,668 in 2022/23).
For international students interested in applying, please note that this studentship only covers home tuition fees and students will need to cover the difference in fees between the home and overseas basic rate. Tuition fee rates for 2023-24 are to be confirmed. Details on current (2022-23) tuition fee rates can be found at: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/funding_phd/tuition-fees/
Eligibility and applying
The scholarship is available to UK and European students. Candidates must hold a first-class degree or a strong 2:1 in biological sciences (e.g., biochemistry, biomedical science, biotechnology, or related discipline).
Applicants from outside of the UK are required to provide evidence of their English language ability. Please see our English language requirements page for details: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/international-students/englishlanguagerequirements/postgraduateresearch/
Informal enquiries about the project can be sent to Simon Moore at simon.moore@qmul.ac.uk. Formal applications must be submitted through our online form by 28th February 2023.
The School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences is committed to promoting diversity in science; we have been awarded an Athena Swan Silver Award. We positively welcome applications from underrepresented groups.
http://hr.qmul.ac.uk/equality/
https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sbbs/about-us/athenaswan/
References
[1] Rasmussen et al (1991) Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 35, 2306–2311; [2] Moore et al (2018) PNAS. 115, E4340–E4349; [3] Kahan et al (2021) RSC Chem Biol. 2, 387–409